link: Vicious Talk

If we can be certain of anything in these uncertain times, it is that nearly every modicum of civility, maturity, and decency in our American culture has evaporated more quickly than dew in the southeast Texas summer.

Presidents are no longer remotely presidential (this is not novel with the current administration). Successful businessmen talk to and about others in ways that would've gotten our mouths washed out with soap as children. And everyday average people treat others online in ways that ought to make them utterly ashamed of their vitriol and immaturity.

None of this is news, but it should concern us. It should be especially concerning to Christians, who are by no means above the fray or immune to the temptations of unleashing childish diatribes against others online and in person. What ever happened to the civilized part of our civilization?

Anthony Esolen has written a great piece lamenting this reality. As one on the right side of the political, theological, and cultural spectrum, he does not mind taking aim first at his own. He writes:

That most of the spitefulness is aimed by the left against the right is no comfort for the conservative, because quite enough of it goes the other way, and the general effect is the same. It will do you no spiritual good, and it is unlikely to achieve even a worldly purpose, to be pleased to find that your opponent, who may be to blame for falsehood or cowardice or outright wickedness, has justified your low opinion, and to make that pleasure evident to everyone. It is not a love of truth. It is a love of falsehood in others. One sign of it is the disappointment you feel when you learn that someone is innocent of the sin you had attributed to him.

The rest of his piece, which quotes largely from 19th century Italian author Alessandro Manzoni, shows us that our current state is neither unique to our day nor new in its ugliness.

It is definitely worth a thoughtful read.

#links #culture #theology

Liberals take positions that make them look good and feel good – and show little interest in actual consequences for others, even when liberal policies are leaving havoc in their wake.

— Thomas Sowell

Note: As an economist, Dr. Sowell is doubtless thinking about political and economic positions; however, the same is plainly true for theology.

#quotes #culture #theology

I have come to think that care of the soul requires a high degree of resistance to the culture around us, simply because that culture is dedicated to values that have no concern for the soul.

— Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander

Note: While there are many things I do not see eye-to-eye with Merton on, this observation is right on the money.

#quotes #culture #theology

If ever one wished to render the church’s message obsolete and her existence pointless, adopting queerness would seem a most excellent way to do it. Queer theory is the perfect tool for demolishing any “oppressive” dogma or claim to transcendent truth. But if the church has no truth to proclaim, why does she exist? Or, more pointedly, why should anyone bother with her?

— Carl R. Trueman, “Lessons from the Decline of Protestant Churches”

#quotes #culture #theology

You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.

— Ray Bradbury

#quotes #reading #culture

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